Boom I Lakes Urgent Care
Lakes Urgent Care Provides The Urgent
Medical Care Your Family Deserves
Expert staff, comfortable and friendly environment, labs and X-rays ...
at a cost much lower than the emergency room.
D
uring two decades of working in an
emergency room, Dr. Sandy Vieder
saw countless patients whose
conditions could have been treated more
quickly, and for less money, in an urgent care
facility. So began his quest to provide a high-
quality, efficient and caring facility to cater
to local families who needed to see a doctor
urgently, often after hours. Lakes Urgent
Care opened its doors in in 2004, located on
Haggerty Road, north of Walnut Lake Road, in
West Bloomfield.
The facility offers a comfortable and
friendly environment, providing quick care for
many urgent situations — those times when
a medical concern is not serious enough for
the emergency room, but when the patient's
primary care doctor is unavailable.
While urgent care facilities were more
common in the 1980s, they then experienced
a decline, often due to inefficient operations.
Today, however, these facilities are once
again gaining ground as both medical
personnel and the public recognizes the value
of keeping patients out of the emergency
room unless necessary.
"Urgent care facilities that offer full service
and that can provide medical treatment at a
lower cost than the emergency room are a
huge bonus for the community," explained
Dr. Vieder, medical director of Lakes Urgent
Care. "If you can't get an appointment with
your primary care doctor, we provide a great
medical option; patients get expert care
while avoiding the chaos of the hospital
emergency room."
While there is no compromise on care
— often provided faster than in a hospital
setting — the cost of an urgent care visit can
be significantly less. Co-pays may well be
comparable to a doctor's office visit, while an
emergency room visit might be four or more
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BOOM Magazine • February 2014
Shannon Mackie { Contributing Writer
times that, perhaps hundreds of dollars.
There are, of course, times when patients
should visit the emergency room — for
serious conditions such as stroke, heart
attack, chest pain, severe bleeding or head
trauma, loss of consciousness, sudden loss of
vision or blurred vision or a major trauma.
However, there are many other times
where urgent care facilities can meet the
needs of patients, providing treatment for
burns, sprains and broken bones, along with
common conditions like ear infections, chest
infections and the flu.
For one Farmington Hills mother, Sue Leff,
taking her three children to Lakes Urgent
Care over the years for anything from a
painful sore throat to a turned ankle has
been very convenient. "Lakes Urgent Care
is accessible, the staff is competent and
friendly, and I trust the care we receive," she
said. "I like knowing we have such a great
medical facility nearby."
The state of Michigan does not currently
regulate urgent care facilities, but the Urgent
Care Association of America offers a stringent
certification process. Lakes Urgent Care
is the only urgent care facility in the West
Bloomfield area to earn the certification.
These standards include requirements for
the hours the facility is open and the type of
services included.
Lakes Urgent Care offers an extremely
high level of service: lab services are on site
and staff can immediately perform blood
work, take x-rays, administer !Vs and more.
These services are available at emergency
rooms, but usually are not present in other
urgent care facilities.
The staff at Lakes Urgent Care also sets
it apart with experienced employees and
little turnover. "Our staff and physicians
all have expertise in emergency medicine,
which ensures that they are very comfortable
treating anything that comes through our
doors," said Dr. Vieder, who is also the
chairman and medical director for the
Emergency Trauma Center at Botsford
Hospital. "If they cannot appropriately treat
a situation that turns out to be more serious,
they have direct access to the ER staff at all the
local hospitals to expedite transition of care."
The Lakes Urgent Care staff understands
the importance of communication. The
facility's doctors always provide a patient's
primary care doctor with a summary of their
visit and any medication that may have been
prescribed.
"This type of communication provides
continuity of care," said Dr. Vieder, who lives
in West Bloomfield and attends Adat Shalom
Synagogue in Farmington Hills. "It's especially
important for those with underlying chronic
issues such as diabetes or migraines."
Lakes Urgent Care has been so successful
because it operates like an extremely
efficient emergency room, explaining the
speed of treatment, while offering friendly,
very personalized care. What helps Dr. Vieder
and his team stand out in urgent care is quite
simple. "Our staff love what they do and that
translates into happy patients," he said.
Giving back to the community is also an
important part of the way Lakes Urgent Care
operates. The facility has sponsored many
youth sports teams and provides health
services for organizations such as the Jewish
Community Center camp and Hillel Day
School.
"We cannot be successful without giving
back to the community," Dr. Vieder said. "We
have to support each other. That's a very
critical part of our mission."
Learn more about Lakes Urgent Care at
www.lakesurgentcare.com .
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